Issue 41, 2024

Understanding the reaction pathway of lithium borohydride-hydroxide-based multi-component systems for enhanced hydrogen storage

Abstract

Complex hydride–metal hydroxide multicomponent hydrogen storage systems have high potential for hydrogen storage because their dehydrogenation thermodynamics can be tuned while maintaining a high hydrogen storage capacity. Out of all the ratios explored using lithium borohydride and lithium hydroxide (LiBH4xLiOH, x = 1, 3, 4), a particularly promising system is LiBH4–3LiOH with a maximum storage capacity of 7.47 wt%. Thermal and diffraction studies along with in situ neutron diffraction reveal new insights into the intermediate phases involved in the reaction pathway, enabling the identification of a detailed reaction schematic. The onset decomposition temperature was reduced to 220 °C for the hand-milled 1 : 3 system, releasing 6 wt% of H2 by 370 °C. Li3BO3 was the main decomposition product. Other than a small trace of water, no toxic gas release was detected along with the H2 release. Ball-milling showed improved reaction kinetics by releasing around 6 wt% between 200 and 260 °C in one step. The destabilization was achieved through the coupling reaction between Hδ− in [BH4] and Hδ+ in [OH]. Among all the catalysts investigated, the addition of 5 wt% NiCl2 led to further improvement in reaction kinetics. This resulted in a decrease in the onset decomposition temperature to 80 °C and released 6 wt% of H2 below 300 °C. The systems have exhibited improvements in kinetics and operational temperature, showing potential as a single use hydrogen storage material.

Graphical abstract: Understanding the reaction pathway of lithium borohydride-hydroxide-based multi-component systems for enhanced hydrogen storage

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Aug 2024
Accepted
10 Sep 2024
First published
13 Sep 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024,12, 28326-28336

Understanding the reaction pathway of lithium borohydride-hydroxide-based multi-component systems for enhanced hydrogen storage

S. Munshi, G. S. Walker, K. Manickam, T. Hansen, M. Dornheim and D. M. Grant, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024, 12, 28326 DOI: 10.1039/D4TA05368K

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